Jason Bedell Online

Main Session 2: Shane Hipps

Shane is the author of Flickering Pixels and is the pastor of Trinity Mennonite Church. He is an ex-employee of strategic planning for Porsche (bizarre). Anyway, in his talk during the labs day and on the main stage the following day- he covered the ideas in his book that technology shapes our faith. We take in so much from TV, Media, Computer, Web, Music, Movies, etc. that it begins to mold the way we process information, believe in moral absolutes, and more.

It was an interesting talk and I'm not quite sure I'm even on the boat with him at this point... but, I'm willing to listen and process it more. I think he is a little off base at times, but we can agree to disagree. His stance on "a couple things concerning God's message and it's evolution over the years" has gotten me a little stirred up, but you can read His idea about it here at this blog post and draw your own conclusions.

Anyway, here are the notes I jotted down while trying to wrap my head around all the really gargantuan words he was saying. Seriously, the guy has quite the vocabulary.

• At Porsche, He was responsible for strategic planning
• Brand people’s brain with the Porsche logo and make you think you need their cars
• Christianity is fundamentally a communication event
• Pillars of fire, smoke, prophets, burning bushes, donkeys, etc.
• "The medium is the message"- Marshall McCullen
• What you communicate with is going to determine how the message is received
• When a human reads printed words, left brain, mathematical encounter
• When you show an image, right brain, experience & encounter
• Mark 2:22
• One day I was spending time at a pretty famous art museum. I walked into a very stark room with one piece of art. There was a gaurd there who was very serious and stern watching everyone who entered the room. The guard in the museum was there to protect an artifact, walk out to the garden and the gardener is promoting life and growth.
• What if what Jesus said is actually true, that the gospel is a lot more like the garden than a painting. If that is true, the kingdom needs more gardeners and a lot less guards.
• Guard is motivated by fear, a Gardener is motivated by love and looks for growth and life. To cultivate the gospel rather than being a guard who spends their time tearing everyone else down because they don't start every sentence with the word, "Gospel."
  
• We simply need to love this gospel because perfect love casts out all fear.
• Is the bible old and a relic? No. As trees grow, roots go deeper and deeper. So it is with the local body. As we learn the fundamentals of His heart, our roots will grow deeper. We don't need to strive for just plain old knowledge. Better to put that knowledge into practice.
• When you do, you won't have time to criticize others... you'll be too busy spreading the gospel as a gardener and less likely to sit as a guard doing nothing.